Zickler Lecture - 1988
DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGICAL SCIENCES
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Daniel Nathans, M.D., Nobel Laureate Johns Hopkins University Genomic Response to Growth Factor |
About
the Speaker
Daniel Nathans
(1928 - 1999)
Born in 1928, Daniel Nathans received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Delaware and attended medical school at Washington University in St. Louis . After completing his medical residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and spending two years as a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute, Nathans joined the laboratory of Fritz Lipmann in 1959, where he developed a bacterial cell-free system that catalyzed protein synthesis. He also showed that phage RNA could support the synthesis of viral coat protein in a cell-free system, the first example of a purified mRNA that directed the synthesis of a specific protein.
In 1962, Nathans joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Using the simplest DNA tumor virus, SV40, he elucidated tools that allowed detailed molecular genetic analysis of mammalian viruses and cells. He showed that the H. influenzae restriction enzyme cleaved SV40 DNA into specific pieces. These studies, published in the Proccedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 1971, ushered in the modern era of genetics. For this accomplishment, he shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Hamilton Smith and Werner Arber.
In 1982, Nathans became a senior investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is currently the University Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins. His ingenious research led to international recognition, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, numerous honorary degrees, and, in 1993, the nation's highest scientific award, the National Medal of Science.